This invention relates generally to an improved coat structure and is more particularly concerned with such a garment which includes means to establish a boatswain's sling or seating harness for use in combination with a line and descent control device.
The prior art has provided special wearing apparel which is intended to afford men working under hazardous conditions with a reasonable degree of protection, and which oftentimes provides means to impart special utilitarian functions to the apparel which is not found in ordinary wearing apparel.
One item of special wearing apparel which the prior art provides is a fireman's turn-out coat. This special form of coat is a loose fitting garment of tough, durable, water-proof fabric and has a loosely fitted inner liner of soft, heat insulating material.
Firemen's coats of the character referred to above are normally mid-length coats, extending from the wearer's shoulders to near the middle of his upper legs or thighs. These coats open centrally and vertically at the front and are provided with vertically-spaced spring-hook and eye type releasable fastening means. Finally, such firemen's coats may be provided with belts engaged about their exterior to occur at or about the waist of the wearer and which are permanently fixed to the coat, as by stitching. The waist belts have flexible, opposite free end portions of limited longitudinal extent at opposite edges of the open front of the coats and which may be provided with freely accessible retaining or buckling rings.
The normal, intended use of the above noted belts and rings is to enable the firemen wearing the coats to releasably secure themselves to the fire truck while enroute to a fire, by engaging the rings to anchoring hooks fixed to the fire trucks.
Use of the above noted special utility coat is not limited to firemen, but is widely used by men engaged in various emergency services and rescue operations.
In the course of fighting fires and in other rescue and/or repair operations, it is not infrequent that the men must escape from elevated, hazardous locations by means of descent lines.
In view of the above, the prior art has provided various special descent control tackle which, when necessary, can be brought into use. An important part of such tackle is a body engaging harness which engages with and about appropriate portions of a man's body and with which other means and parts of the tackle are cooperatively related.
The above noted harness means provided by the prior art are, as a general rule, rather heavy, large or bulky structures of broad belting material with large and heavy metal pieces of hardward fixed thereto. Such harness means are such that they cannot be practically and effectively provided for each man and carried about by him, as a part of his personal survival equipment.
On numerous occasions, firemen have been trapped in elevated locations from which they could have escaped if provided with suitable descent tackle.
In efforts to overcome the problems noted above, the prior art has sought to provide firemen and the like with personal equipment which will enable them to effect their own escape from heights, when necessary. To date, one of the most satisfactory of such devices comprises a small diameter, lightweight yet strong rope and a descent control device mounted thereon. This descent control device is manufactured and sold under the trademark SKY-GENIE by Descent Control Inc., at Costa Mesa, California, and is fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,250,515, issued May 10, 1966.
While the aforesaid descent control device has proven to be most satisfactory in operation, one of the problems during emergency situations, is the absence of an appropriate harness which would be safe and yet comfortable. One expedient used by firemen is to couple the SKY GENIE descent control device to the belt of his turn-out coat. However, coupling the above noted descent control device to the belt, not only concentrates forces about a man's torso or midriff in an undesirable and dangerous manner, but directs and concentrates those forces in an unbalancing manner which is such that a man is likely to be left with little or no control of direction and/or body disposition.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a utility coat of the general character referred to above with a seating harness incorporated therein, whereby a man wearing the coat and equipped with descent tackle can conveniently couple the tackle with the harness of his coat for safe, controlled descent of his person through use of said tackle.
More particularly, it is an object to provide such harness means in a coat, which includes a pair of crotch straps with upper rear ends secured to a belt fixed about the waist portion of the jacket, intermediate lower crotch engaging portions and upper front ends with loops and having means to selectively couple said front ends or front end portions with the center front portion of the belt.
Another object is to provide such harness means wherein the upper front end of the crotch straps are normally positioned adjacent the upper rear ends of said straps and are releasably secured thereto, whereby the straps normally depend from the belt at the rear of the jacket in a single fold and are readily manually accessible from between the wearer's legs for extending them through the wearer's crotch and coupling their front ends with the belt at the front of the jacket.
Yet another object is to provide such an improved utility coat wherein the belt is split or opens at the front of the coat and is provided with flexible free end portions of limited longitudinal extent and carrying retainer or buckling rings, and wherein the upper front ends of the straps define loops through which related free end portions of the belt can be freely slidably engaged to secure those ends of the straps to the belt.
A further object is to provide suitable coupling means for releasably securing the retainer or buckle rings of the belt together and for coupling the belt with a cooperating descent control device.